Choosing your criteria for success

During our briefings, the judge at the trial this weekend reminded us that there is more than one criteria for success; a qualifying score, which can be rather hard to come by, is just one measure.

About 16 months ago, I came to the same conclusion, and have been instead trying to focus on what went right, and what can I learn from what went wrong.

This last weekend Django and Angela, Maebe and me had four runs over two days.  The qualifying score measure of success of two Q’s between us does not tell the whole story.

For Django, there was the story of his fastest most inspired runs; some of Angela’s best handling, recovery from situations that on other weekend became off-courses.

For Maebe, there were near perfect runs, tight handling, conversation stopping performances, and me remembering to really play with my dog immediately after each run, every single time, even when people came up afterwards to talk to me.

I also got to test out a new project of mine – an agility performance tracking sheet that allows you to measure your level of success an more than a dozen different areas; it allows you to celebrate your strengths; identify areas for improvement; and preserve the memory of your run. You can access a copy of it here or click on the image below. Please let me know what you think of it via comments, and if you want to share it with others, please send them the link to this post so I can track how often it’s being accessed.

Happy New Year from the Dharmaspoon Guy

2010 was a great year.  Some highlights:

Our tenth wedding anniversary

Road trip to Florida

Lots of agility

Lots of racing

Lots of knitting

Lots of dog walks

Lots of feline shenanigans

Lots of time with friends and family

Celebrating the change of the seasons

A picture a day, every day

Speaking of which, here’s what our year looked like, more or less, in a single picture:

Hope you finished off a wonderful 2010 and have an even better 2011. – DSG

The last hustle of 2010

A few weekends ago I ran my last race of the season, a 5K “Holiday Hustle”. The weather was cold. My lungs burned with every breath. When I was done I could taste my own blood.
Every race has it’s theme. This time, it was working through discomfort, a skill I have to confess, is one that needs some improvement.
I’ve been reading a lot lately about top runners and one thing they have in common is that their training, their genetics, only take them so far. After a point, what makes them perform amazing physical feats is the mental ability to push through their discomfort, their pain, their apparent limitations and tough it out.
Now I primarily race against myself.  Yes, I enjoy placing and the accompanying swag that goes with it, but that’s not what motivates me (entirely). I want to see how far I can push myself. I like to challenge my mind and my body and running allows me to do both. And this race, more than any other this season, challenged me to work through an intense burn with every breath.  My reward was that I ran my fastest 5K of the season (and the sole ornament for our little Christmas tree).

As I reflect on my running season, I realize that my success came from not just my efforts alone, but the support of my wife, Angela, and Cadence, when she brought him, who were always there to cheer me on, either at the finish line or at the start.  For them I am grateful.

Turkey Trots (with Iron and without)

Last weekend marked the start of the holiday series of races with the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot.

Three distances were offered: 10K, 5K, and for kids, the 1mile. If you wanted a cool “Iron Turkey” t-shirt, you could run both, back to back. Well, I wanted the t-shirt, so that’s what I did, while Dharmaspoon Gal entered the 5K.

Dharmaspoon Gal was a little sore going into the 5K and unfortunately ended up with a nasty case of shin splints in the days after the race. Given the choice to pull from the race or go all out, without fear, she went, and gave it her all. And now she’s giving her all to recovery, and will be back before you know it.

As of race day, I was in the middle of reading a fascinating book, “Born to Run.” The book connects our love of running as a species to it’s primal and evolutionary roots via a mix of science, anecdote, and the spellbinding tale of an almost mythical group of distance running villagers in the Copper Canyon of Mexico, and a race between a group of them and a rag-tag collection of “gringo” challengers.

Within the book, a number of observations are made about the both the joy and the lightness with with these villagers run. And also their perfect form, running only on their forefeet, as humans were actually designed to do.

With the book in mind, I decided to spend the race(s) focusing on running light, and with joy. I also made an effort to watch the runners around me to try to find others who were doing the same, so I could learn from them.

This change in perspective and focus made both races much more enjoyable. I was not worried about passing and being passed (well, until the last mile of each race, anyway), and just focused on how I was running, on enjoying running within the group, and catching glimpses of the handful of runners who were doing the same, but better. What I realized was that the really excellent runners fell into two groups:  some appeared to expend less energy and have smiles on their faces while the others ran with contorted bodies, faces grimacing with equal parts determination and pain.  Now that I see there is a choice, my new goal is to train to be the light joyful runner. Had my first lesson observing the kids running the mile race before we headed home.

A philosophical agility halloweekend

Had a wonderful two days of agility this past Halloween weekend. There were costumes, there were friends, there were lots of runs, and lots of successes.

As I sat down to write about what happened just a few days ago, it occurred to me that I have no idea how many qualifying runs we had, how many times we placed, or what those placements were. And I think this reflects my philosophy about competition:

1. Put in your best performance

2. Learn from your mistakes

3. Remember to have fun

4. Whether you win or lose, experience the moment, and then move on

5. Be grateful for the opportunity to compete

Here is what I do remember about the weekend:

• Spending quality time with my wife, dogs and agility friends
• Watching Django get his mojo back
• Completing two runs with Tristan and having him remain sound, even days later
• A great costume contest
• A magical jumper’s run with Maebe
• Well timed lead-out-pivots, serpentines, and back-to-back rear crosses, all of which we have worked really hard on  
• Figuring out what I need to work on next

Django with his mojo restoring costume:

Run Ichabod, Run

 

“…He stopped, his heart pounding in fear. Before his startled eyes, a white mist burst forth from an unmarked grave and formed into a large horse carrying a headless rider.  Ichabod Crane let out a terrible scream as the horse leapt toward him at a full gallop. He took to his heels, running as fast as he could…”

Last Saturday, we found ourselves in “Sleepy Howell” for the Headless Horseman 5K. It was our first night race, which was pretty cool. We often train in the dark, but have never raced in it.

   The course was fun and fast, taking us through downtown and then lakeside and through a luminary-lit cemetery.

The headless horseman started things off, oddly, galloping away from us. I guess he was intimidated, as there were 600 of us.

Running in a hooded cloak and mask was about as comfortable as you might think, so I pulled the hood down and the mask off after the first quarter mile. A few people thought I was wearing a black dress as a costume. That’s ok. Black goes with everything.

I started at the front of the group, as is typically my strategy. I’d rather get passed by a few fast runners than have to pass hundreds of slower runners. Lined up along side me was superman, a zombie, a male nun with a baby stroller, who others around us and who knew him, assured us would still kick all of our asses, which he did.

Angela started a little further back. She has a more nuanced calculation when deciding where to place herself in the pack. It involves the BMI of the other competitors, how much crap they’re wearing, and the phase of the moon.

We both ran our hardest, and both of us ran paces we were proud of. Angela placed 7^th out of the 50 women in her age group, which is nothing to sneeze at. I ended up placing 2^nd in my age group and 25^th overall. There were a lot of fast runners. Many of them were young. I’m glad that I wasn’t in the 14-15 year old age group, for example, were my time would have earned me 8^th in my age group. Where do these kids come from?

Post race refreshment was fun, a mix of the usual stuff and Halloween candy, which was pretty cool.

Overall, it was a fun race and a good time. We’ll be back next year.

Up North Birthday Bustle

It’s fall in Michigan. It’s a time of year when we Michiganders are drawn to the mythical “up north,” which is a point 2 or more hours north of where you started, if you are anywhere in the Lower Peninsula, plus all of the Upper Peninsula. The fall colors are spectacular and the weather can still be pleasant.

And so last Friday we dropped off the old guys at the farm and then headed “up north” with Django, Maebe, and Cadence for a long birthday weekend (mine).

We set up camp at Interlochen, which is on a sand bar between two glacial lakes. From there, we embarked on our many adventures, because that’s how we roll on “vacation.”

The weather was beautiful; sunny; 70’s. The leaves were about at peak color. There were, surprisingly, no crowds.

Our first activity was to drive a little farther northwest to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We hiked up to Pyramid Point, a several hundred foot sand bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands, once a stopping point for steamships en-route to Chicago.

The dogs seemed to enjoy their first hike. Cadence wore his backpack and carried water for all of us. Django and Maebe were more than happy to let Cadence be the sole backpacker. I think they’re just jealous because their backpacks look pretty lame compared to Cadence’s.

This part of the state is known for its massive sand dunes and the clear blue water of Lake Michigan. It was once also known for expansive stands of massive pine trees. All but a few of the trees in the state were cut down to rebuild Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, which occurred 139 years ago on the exact date of our visit, October 8. The remnant of one of the surviving stands occupies a small section of the park at which we camped, and so in the evening, when we returned from Sleeping Bear, we took a walk through the forest.

We capped off the evening with a nice campfire and got to bed a little early, because the next day, my birthday, I thought it would be fun to celebrate by running a 10K trail race on part of a popular trail system north of Traverse City, the cherry capital of the world.

On Saturday we were up at 5 to get everyone fed and to get out to the trail head in time to have our pick of parking space. Picked up my race packet before dawn.

When the sun came up, a wonderful scene was painted with red, yellow, and orange maple leaves against a backdrop of clear blue sky.

While Django and Maebe rested in the car, Angela and Cadence were there to see me off on my run and to cheer me on when I approached the finish line.

Seeing Angela and Cadence really helped me to finish strong.

 

The race itself was tough, but nice, because it was so beautiful. There were more than a few hills and it was actually 2K more than advertised, but some of my strongest running was actually in those last 2K. I ran hard and my reward was a 3^rd place finish in my new age group.

When we got back to the car, Angela presented me with a very thoughtful gift. She got an artist/blogger/agility enthusiast we follow to draw a Maebe “logo”, which Angela then had printed on a number of clothing items and a tote bag. It was the coolest gift.

I changed clothes and then off we went, back onto the trails, for a 5K hike with all of the dogs. It was nice because Angela got to see some of the same trails I had just run through and to appreciate the trees in their colorful glory.

During the hike we came across a stream and Cadence got to get his feet wet. That dog loves water.

Keeping Cadence’s love of water in mind, our next stop was back at Sleeping Bear, on a trail that brought us to the shore of Lake Michigan. The five of us trekked over a few low lying sand dunes and were rewarded by a virtually private beach that went for miles in either direction. Maebe and Django relaxed while Cadence had his first encounter with waves. I bet he couldn’t believe it. All of that splashing and he didn’t even have to cause any of it. He just stared and bowed and barked. We could have probably left him there all day and he wouldn’t have moved, but eventually, it was time to move on.

Back at camp we hiked the virgin pine forest again, had a nice meal, a tasty beverage, and a warm fire. It was a perfect birthday.

   

On Sunday we awoke to an amazing sunrise over Green Lake. I gathered some wood for a morning fire to keep us warm while we at pancakes.

After another virgin forest hike we packed up and headed back home with the dogs and our “Up North” memories.